What did you do in your garden today?

[Esther Knapicius]

Still raining here. really just soggy damp outside.

 

[Sean Regan]

Clear blue skies, +3c, snow still hanging around.

 

[Sean Regan]

We've some hyacinths that have finished flowering which were a Christmas present, I'm going to get some compost tomorrow and pot them up but keep them in the shed for now.

 

[gary350]

All 98 garlic are dead after

3 days of -2°f temperatures killed them. Every place that had a garlic clove growing now has a blob of mush. I have 11 garlic heads setting in 11 glasses of water soon as they grow roots and tops I will transplant them. It will take a month to grow tops. It might be too late to plant garlic. I read online garlic is good down to 0°f.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Mind Blown, bravo!

I have some half inch hardware cloth I make a tube of and stick into the cement mixer when I have a big pile being opened, but really just stretching some over the wheelbarrow works too.

 

[Sean Regan]

Potted out these ten M&S hyacinth bulbs that were a Christmas present for my wife. They're now cut down and planted in two narrow rectangular green plastic troughs. I'll keep them in the shed for now but they'll fit on the top step of the patio next to the French windows.
They were on our Dwell coffee table we've had for a number of years. The two halves slide sideways to reveal storage space below.
Never seen one like it since.

I had to go to Wilko for the compost. A bit of a pain as I had to push a Sainsbury's trolley from their car park nearly two hundred yards as Wilko is in the middle of a precinct. I bought two large bags, as we've the new mimosa coming at the end of this month or beginning of next and in March some bare root lily of the valley from my wife's favourite shopping channel. 6 x Convallaria majalis Berlin Giant and three majalis Rosea. These will go in some pots.
We have got some lily of the valley in the garden, but they are under the azaleas and rhodos, so never get seen. At one time they started coming up in the edge of the lawn!

I then spent an hour tidying the shed and giving the lawnmower a good clean.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Got out my propagator, nice and clean still since I put it away. Put it on the bedroom windowsill and switched on, all working fine. It is the sort that takes a number of small seed trays with clear covers and planted the first one up with cauliflower seed, then thought "It's a bit early, but no harm trying" and put some parsnip and basil in as well, the basil can stay on the windowsill if they come up. They were old seed, I keep buying or getting given new lots and these are a couple of years old, but the packet says 'Use by 2026', and I have lots more basil seed, including other packets and ones I saved last year

 

[Sean Regan]

Too wet to do anything in the garden, fortunately there's not a lot that needs any attention at the moment.
Our new mimosa is arriving on Friday, so I need to get some compost for it. I can get that on Thursday at Asda when I do the shopping.

These two wooden troughs have been in the Garage since the end of October. The six hebes which were in them are out of sight on the small patio in front of the shed.

I bought these troughs on eBay for £50 each in 2021, the price seems a bargain at the time and even more so, at the moment.

But they are only soft wood. Such things are made from, "renewable resources," fast growing timber with "the density of forced rhubarb" as I unkindly say about such things. "They can rot away while you look at them."

They were only put together with a nail gun, so I made them more durable with about three dozen screws in each.

They got a coat of Dulux Woodsheen inside and out.

I also added six feet to each keep the bases off the patio. The back feet are on the first step up to the new patio, to save space on the main patio front of them.

But I'm going to give them a bit of a sand down and re-paint them, but they won't be going back out for a couple of months.

 

[Sean Regan]

Our mimosa arrived this morning.

I wasn't impressed, it was about 8ft tall and would need its support cane for the rest of my lifetime.
The foliage was looking very tatty and had lost some of its leaves at the end of tiny branches.

Given this cost £70, I considered it unacceptable, so I've e-mailed the supply attached these photos and asked them to collect it and give me a refund.

I've decided that the hebes that we had in the troughs haven't survived the freeze. very well, they're all woody and aren't showing any sign of life. They look dead to me.



They may recover, but they won't be going back in the troughs. I'll find somewhere for them, if only "the green bin."

So I went to the local garden centre this afternoon and bought six more. I'll paint the troughs tomorrow, but keep the hebes in the shed until the end of the month. The little troughs next to the window have the hyacinth bulbs which were a present to my wife at Christmas.
The dozen primroses in pots which were a present from the same friend the Christmas before last, which I planted out along the edge of the long border in the January, are all in flower.

My biggest concerns are always my acer palmatums and the sambucas, but they are doing well and showing buds. The palmatum Taylor is still in the warm, in the freezer room in the garage. That has buds on it too.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Spent some time on assembling an old greenhouse I have been given, it is a total pain, but I will get there in the end. While I was round the back of the other greenhouse working on it I realised that a trough with miniature iris in it was in full bloom, so brought it down on the patio. Went visiting in the car yesterday and got a load of odd bits of wood from a lay-by, so chucked all that in my trench, bar a couple of planks from a pallet that I chopped up for kindling. The badger has been visiting regularly, there is a path worn where he comes in, I like the idea of having him about, but he has dug up the sea holly and made three big holes in the garlic bed.

 

[brantelyolivia1320]

I thought I would be preparing to put rocks, plants, soil etc in the garden today. Our forum has people from all over the world. Here's the question... What did you do in your garden today?

 

[Sean Regan]

I mislead people yesterday, what I bought were heathers. I may buy some more hebes later, so I can ring the changes with the troughs, as they are in a prominent position. I painted them today, after giving them a good clean. I was pleased to see there was no sign of any rot developing.
So as the weather's warm, I might put them out tomorrow.
Checking the camera cards, I saw that there was a young fox on the patio last night.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

18 degrees here, went out and filled bird feeders and suet containers, fingers got frost bit doing that little chore. So inside for me. tonight going to a Robert Burns party.

 

[Sean Regan]

I gave the wooden troughs another coat of paint this morning, it only takes the second coat a couple of hours to dry.
So it's all done and dusted. A bit of colour in a presently bland looking garden.
I've put one of the trail cameras back on its post in one of the troughs. I use it to keep an eye on 'arry the 'edgehog, when he's out and feeding overnight. Of course, there's no sign of him yet, too early... (provided he's survived the winter),
I've done my best for him, as his "winter house" has extra insulation. But it was bitterly cold a few weeks ago.
I've resisted checking on him, he's either survived, or hasn't and we'll know by mid-March. I'll put his cat-proof feeder out in a couple of weeks with some dry and semi-moist hedgehog food. If he comes out before then, I'll know as I've put a tiny bit of hebe pruning in the entrance of his house which he'll push out of the way if he comes out. He knows there will be suet pellets and bits of fat balls in the ground bird feeder if he's hungry, as he's been in it before.

I transferred the plants into bigger pots, the three just fit into the troughs. They are sitting on plastic saucers.

The patio needs a good jet-wash and a bit of re-pointing in a few places, but that will have to wait for a couple of months.


I wired up the smaller of the two acer palmatums. I don't like them to spread too wide, as the shade they make encourages moss growth on the lawn. There's no point trying top do anything with the top growth for the moment, "as it will do as it likes." I'll wait until the foliage is all out and prune off any "untrainable" growth. The object is not to remove anything which would leave a "hole" in the canopy.

 

[Sean Regan]

I put it down to I've probably not enough to do, as it's still too cold to do anything in the garden, which would just be a bit of tidying anyway.

We had these troughs in front of the summer house for about ten years, but the bottoms rotted on them. So there's been nothing here for about three years.

So I decided I'd get some new ones.

I had a long search on eBay, checking on dozens of these sort of troughs. Many "I wouldn't have given house room." Why do vendors sometimes photograph stuff that is poorly constructed?

Anyway, I eventually found these. The space either side of the summerhouse steps is 90cms, so I needed ones that weren't longer than that, as they'd look a bit naff if they stuck out either side, or were too short.
They are very similar to the ones on the patio, with the sort of base that will allow water to drain through. I'll give them a couple of coats of Dulux Woodstain. They should be here by the end of the week. They appear to be quite well made. But like the others they're probably assembled with a nail gun, so I'll reinforce them with some screws.

I'll get some new hebes for them in a few weeks, the original ones in the patio planters don't look as if they've survived "the big freeze."